Chi-X continues technology push with senior appointments

Chi-X Global, the holding company for all Chi-X trading venues, has hired ex-Lehman executive Steven Silberstein as the firm looks to ramp up its technological capabilities. In addition, Gregory E. Smith, CEO of Chi-X Global Technologies, will also assume the role of vice chairman, Chi-X Global.

Silberstein will be responsible for all of Chi-X Global’s technology and will lead the technology coordination between Chi-X Global’s trading platforms, its trading participants and the development of the Chi-Tech subsidiary.

Silberstein will jointly report to Smith and John Lowrey, CEO of Chi-X Global. He will also join the Chi-X Global executive committee. Silberstein was most recently a managing director at Lehman Brothers, where he had global responsibility for the bank’s prime brokerage product. Prior to this role, he was chief information officer of the firm’s global equities division, helping to drive Lehman’s move into electronic and quantitative execution.

“The equity trading business has increasingly become a technology arms race, and in nearly all cases, the leading trading platforms and market participants are those that have leveraged the most cutting-edge, robust technology,” said Silberstein.

As vice chairman of Chi-X Global, Smith will focus on business strategy and the commercialisation of the products and services of Chi-Tech, formed by Chi-X Global last November after the purchase of data management firm Cicada, founded by Smith.

“With the former Cicada business now fully integrated into Chi-X Global, we felt the timing was right to broaden Greg’s portfolio of work, particularly in the commercialisation of Chi-X Global’s products and the strategic build out of new products and services for our global customers,” said Lowrey.

Additionally, Chi-Tech has announced its intention to use 29West, a provider of low-latency messaging technology, for the market data delivery of its MarketPrizm service. MarketPrizm is Chi-Tech’s trading infrastructure, a bespoke network providing high-speed access to 19 markets and locations. Users of the product include banks, funds and other investment and trading firms.

“We try to partner with specialised providers where it makes sense for our clients and our development strategy,” said Richard Leung, Chi-Tech’s CTO. “In this case, we selected the 29West product for its demonstrated performance and the fact that many banks and trading firms have already implemented 29West products in other parts of their infrastructures.”

Chi-X Global operates Chi-X Canada and is a 50% owner of Chi-East, the joint dark pool initiative with the Singapore Exchange, due to launch in mid-2010. Chi-X Global is a subsidiary of agency broker Instinet, which is the largest shareholder of pan-European multilateral trading facility Chi-X Europe.??